L.A. council delays vote on supergraphic restrictions

Faced with criticism from business leaders and neighborhood councils, the Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday delayed a vote for three months on a plan for placing new restrictions on digital billboards and multi-story “supergraphic” advertising.

Council members sought the delay, in part, so that the proposed ordinance could be reviewed by City Atty.-elect Carmen Trutanich, who won his election last week but does not take office until July 1.

The proposed ordinance would prohibit digital billboards across the city while allowing their installation in special sign districts. The proposal would allow for new sign districts in up to 21 areas. Seven other sign districts have applications pending at City Hall.

Still, some council members said the proposed ordinance made too few locations eligible for new signs. Councilman Richard Alarcon said he wanted a way for his northeast San Fernando Valley district to approve new signs in exchange for the removal of others.

Meanwhile, Councilwoman Janice Hahn said other locations, including Dodger Stadium and sections of Wilmington, also should be eligible to become sign districts if business groups and neighborhood councils want them.

“They should have a right to apply,” she said.

Trutanich, who will not take office until July 1, did not testify but informed council members during private conversations throughout the meeting that he was interested in reviewing the proposed law.

“My job will be to defend the city” if it is sued over the ordinance, he said. “I want to make sure that it’s tight, that’s all.”

The proposed ordinance also calls for a new way of regulating supergraphics -- advertisements wrapping around one or more sides of a building. Under the proposal, supergraphics would not be banned but instead designated as “wall signs” that can cover only a fraction of a building surface.

Neighborhood groups complained that the sign law still offered too many exceptions to outdoor advertising companies. Business leaders, on the other hand, said the regulations would stifle the already struggling economy.

The council agreed to rework its billboard law last year after receiving complaints from residents in Silver Lake, Westwood and the San Fernando Valley about digital signs being installed in their neighborhoods. Those digital signs were made possible under a legal settlement approved by the council in 2006.

Billboard industry representatives downplayed the complaints received by council members about digital signs.

“They were getting blow-back from a fringe group of people,” said Ryan “R.B.” Brooks, vice president of governmental affairs for CBS Outdoor, which received permission from the city to convert up to 420 billboards to illuminated digital images.

Tuesday’s delay left at least one billboard critic anxious. Dennis Hathaway, president of the Coalition to Ban Billboard Blight, said he fears that business groups will spend the next three months watering down the proposed sign law.

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david.zahniser@latimes.com